Station Crew Upgrades Water Recovery System

The three Expedition 29 crew members living and working aboard the International Space Station tackled a variety of science experiments Tuesday and upgraded the water recycling system.

Commander Mike Fossum spent part of his day working with the station’s Water Recovery System, two refrigerator sized racks packed with a distiller and filters that convert urine and sweat into clean drinking water. Continuing work that began Monday, Fossum switched out one of the filter assemblies with the Advanced Recycle Filter Tank Assembly, which separates the filters from the tank and allows the tank to be emptied and reused. Fossum and Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa also used this opportunity to perform regularly scheduled maintenance on the system as they collected test samples and refilled tanks.

Later, Fossum devoted some time to a pathfinder demonstration known as the Preliminary Advanced Colloids Experiment, or PACE, which is setting the stage for the Advanced Colloid Experiment by determining the limits of high-resolution image magnification possible aboard the space station.

Meanwhile, Furukawa participated in an educational activity as he assembled NASA-inspired models with Lego bricks to demonstrate to children and student groups the challenges faced when building things in a weightless environment.

Furukawa also conducted an inspection of the Gradient Heating Furnace’s heater to help engineers on the ground determine the cause of a short circuit that occurred with the unit in April. This facility is a vacuum furnace used for high quality crystal growth experiments.

In the Russian segment of the station, Flight Engineer Sergei Volkov participated in the Pneumocard experiment, a study of the adaptation of the cardiovascular system during long-duration spaceflight. Volkov later spent some time photographing panels in the Zvezda service module.